according to http://www.eurweb.com
*Michael Jackson’s father, Joseph Jackson, filed his promised wrongful-death lawsuit against Dr. Conrad Murray today, seeking at least $75,000 in damages relating to the death of his son exactly one year ago.
According to a copy of the suit provided by Jackson’s lawyer, Brian Oxman, the action was filed against Murray and his two medical clinics, Acres Home Heart & Vascular Associates in Houston and GCA Holdings LLC in Las Vegas in federal court in California on Friday afternoon.
The suit lists Jackson’s mother, Katherine, as well as his three children, Michael Joseph “Prince” Jackson Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince Michael Jackson II as “nominal” plaintiffs in the case. (Katherine’s lawyer, Adam Streisand, has since expressed that she does not want to be involved in the lawsuit. He tells TMZ, “Mrs. Jackson has no interest in Conrad Murray other than seeing that justice is done in the criminal courts.”)
Though Joseph Jackson has spoken out several times about the alleged role he believed concert promoter AEG Live played in his son’s death — claiming that Michael was too sick and that AEG was pushing the frail singer too hard to play too many shows — AEG is not named in the lawsuit.
The suit claims that, “Defendant’s conduct of attempting to conceal the multi-state supply of drugs and the use of their facilities in Texas and Nevada to obtain medications was an extreme departure from the standard of care.”
The suit, which demands a jury trial, also claims that Joseph Jackson “believes there are other parties responsible for Michael Jackson’s death but has not yet gathered sufficient information regarding their potential liability or responsibility.”
The complaint alleges that Murray withheld vital information about Jackson’s health history — including a list of all the drugs he had administered to his patient — to paramedics who responded to a 911 call as well as to doctors at UCLA Medical Center attempting to revive the singer. At the autopsy for Jackson, the complaint also alleges that Murray “said nothing” about administering the surgical anesthetic propofol, which the coroner concluded caused Jackson’s death.
It also claims that Murray’s allegedly misleading comments to the head of UCLA’s Emergency Medical Department, Dr. Richelle Cooper, and to first responders were “designed to conceal the inter-state shipment of medications utilizing defendant’s multi-state facilities and Texas and Nevada drug registrations to obtain medications in California.”
The suit claims that nearly 90 minutes elapsed between the time he discovered Jackson unresponsive and the 911 call and that after police discovered that Murray spent 47 minutes on his cell phone during that period, the doctor “altered his version” of events on the day of Jackson’s death.
“The reason defendant felt he could change his story was because he kept no medical records documenting his treatment” as required by law.
Joseph Jackson claims he has suffered more than $75,000 in damages — the minimum amount required to get a case into federal court — as a result of Murray’s alleged negligence. Those alleged losses include wages and earnings, services, affection, income and support, medical expenses for treatment of physical and emotional injuries and other damages not yet named.
